Brushbys
by Chloe Stewart
Summary: Brushbys is a central base point, short excursions where my tales may come together and intersect, forming a richer tapestry. Elements I use include Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Torchwood, Alien Nation, and D.C. Comics.
1. First Contact

Brushbys: First Contact

The lights popped and sizzled, the special effects magic doing their work. As the smoke filled the arena, she could her them outside cheer in an ever growing crescendo. She had stood here so many times before, and it has always filled her heart with such strong joy. Tonight, however, she could feel nothing but regret as the hatch opened above her and the smoke from the stage filled the small elevator chamber. Brushing her thoughts aside, she gripped her microphone tightly as the elevator began to rise. She smiled to herself as her fans erupted in total joy and praise. Still, deep inside her heart, she felt so meaningless. Twice before she had seen such greater wonders than she could have imagined, and now this simple stag just felt so small and irrelevant in comparison.

_The last time I freaked out_

_I just kept looking down_

_I st-st-stuttered when you asked me what I'm thinking about._

_Felt like I couldn't breathe_

_You asked what's wrong with me_

_My best friend Lily said "Oh she's just being Miley"_

"Great show, bud," Robbie Ray congratulated his sixteen-year-old daughter as she left the stage. "I'm telling you, those critics wouldn't know talent if it was brought to them balanced on the nose of a dancing dog!"

It had been ten months since Miley Stewart had given up her stage name of Hannah Montana for her new career. Of course, the fact that it was leaked by the tabloids when both she and Hannah disappeared for three months made secret-keeping a little difficult. The critics of course made her their latest whipping girl, and almost every week there was a story printed chastising her for her "dishonest and antisocial" personality. There was no question she was going a little more serious with her own songs, but she couldn't help it. She was not the Miley she had been.

Her mind raced as the bus began to pull away from the desert stage. Her publicist had called her nuts for scheduling a concert out in the middle of the Mojave, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that her dad understood. The quiet and space around her so far from the city lights was peaceful in it's own way, and she could let her mind drift to days gone by, and the decisions that panged her with each revolution of the moon and the sun.

But this was to be a night, not for quiet contemplation, but for new decisions to be made.

The boom that filled the sky made Lily jump out of her seat, and everyone's eyes went wide with shock. Sure, she had a bit of experience with sonic booms. After all, Hannah had been a guest on the penultimate flight of the Concorde. But this was different. Far louder, more like the resonance of a god coming to Earth. Miley ran to the front of the bus, plopping down in the passenger seat next to the driver. Looking out through the windshield, she could see a massive shadow fill the horizon as a great structure fell through the skies. Her heart filled with joy, and a triumphant gleam entered her eyes as she saw it come down towards the ground. She looked back at Lilly who nodded, showing the two girls had the same word at the front of their thoughts.

"Come on Miley," Jackson protested. "Even supposing the military and the news crews and everything let you through, who's to say they come in peace and don't want to kill us?"

"Trust me," Miley insisted. "Sometimes, with some situations, you just have to crash right into it."

As luck would have it, the military hadn't had time to block off the area yet. Rushing forward proudly, Miley and Lilly began to tear towards the downed spaceship. Suddenly, a thought hit Miley, and she doubled back to the bus to grab a left-over McDonald's bag. Sharing a smile with Lily, the two ran out, quickly outpacing the others. The shadow cast by the spaceship was truly massive, as was the ship itself. The first military officials present at the crash-site whispered estimates of a half-mile in diameter to each other. Everyone's eyes were wide and lips silent as a hatch began to open. The first look at the Newcomers would later be noted as the point where everything changed. These bald aliens, with darkened spots in lieu of hair would forever be remembered in the passages of Earth's history.

But Miley was little concerned with them, merely smiling and shaking hands as she passed quickly through their numbers, past the few military officials trying to keep the area under quarantine. After nearly forty minutes of searching, she heard Lily cry out in joy. Smiling to herself, she rushed inside the ship, down a darkened corridor, where the old blue box waited for her. She closed her eyes softly, counting to three, before looking to her left. Right on queue, there he stood for the third time, just as he had promised. Wiping a happy tear from her eye, she ran forward, grabbing him in a surprise hug.

"Miley," he asked in utter amazement.

"Doctor," she replied simply. "Right on time."

"What in the name of Montana are you girls doing here," he asked her, smiling as he noticed Lily bashfully grinning against the box.

"It's a long story," Miley confirmed. "The words I think you said to use were wibbly wobbly…"

"Timey Wimey," the Doctor finished, as he straightened his blue pinstripe suit. He cast a quick glance to his red-haired companion. "Miley, this is…"

"Donna Noble," Miley said simply, shaking her hand. "I know. Remember to buy the red one, not the green. It brings out your eyes better."

Donna looked in wonder at the little girl, smirking a bit to herself as she shook her hand. Breathing a bit of a sigh of relief, she noticed the bag Miley was holding.

"Oh I cannot begin to tell you how famished I was," she said, as she took the salad shaker from Miley.

"Well I need to get back," Miley said with a smile. "Tour to finish and all that."

"Oh so soon," the Doctor protested. "But we've not even had proper time to catch up."

"We will," Miley said with a knowing smile. "Oh, and I could use some new earrings."

Scrunching his nose in confusion, he committed her words to memory as he and Donna stepped into the old blue box, and disappeared into the night.

"Come on Lily," Miley said with a calm and warm smile. "The twenty-first century is waiting for us out there, and I'm not about to miss it. Everything's about to change and we'll be there to see it happen!"


	2. School's Out

Brushbys: School's Out

"It's just like the reports stated," the National Guard soldier informed the international team gathered before him. The tone was completely hushed; confusion filled the air like the stale dust that was left at the crater site.

"But this doesn't make any sense," the blond FBI soldier said, looking over the dossier on the incident she had been handed. "How could a building filled with more than three thousand people just disappear off the face of the planet?"

"Oh there are actually quite a few ways it could happen," a handsome man in a World War II longcoat stated simply as he entered the tent. A young black woman followed him, writing down some notes on a clipboard. "Could be a perception filter applied to the exterior, a concentrated temporal-spatial Rift disturbance…"

"It could be the Judoon," his companion suggested in a London accent. "I mean, Royal Hope was more than five times the size of this secondary school."

"I'm sorry," the FBI agent said in confusion. "Who are you two?"

"Right, how rude of me," the man said with a smile. "Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood, and this is Doctor Martha Jones, with UNIT. We were brought in as special consultants."

"By who," the woman asked, more confused than ever.

"I invited them Agent Scully," the older gentleman at the head of the table who had simply given a name of K said. "With the recent upswing in paranormal disturbances in Britain, I thought they might be familiar enough to help us."

"Well we'll do our best," Harkness replied with a grin. "First things first, were there any eyewitnesses?"

"There was just one," Scully informed them, handing her dossier over the doctor. "A senior by the name of Sharpay Evans. According to her testimony, she left class in the middle of the day to retrieve an audition costume for the winter musical. When she returned, she noticed quote, 'Rain falling up', and the school disappeared."

"Definitely the Judoon then," Jack said firmly. "Martha, remind me, I owe you a Coke."

"What are Judoon," Scully asked him.

"Intergalactic police for hire," Martha answered, fielding the question. "About a year and a half ago, they transported Royal Hope Hospital from the middle of London in a similar manner to locate a fugitive."

"There's another alien race interested in the Earth," Scully asked, her brow raised in confusion.

"We try to let you main government types have only one or two," K explained flatly. "Distract you from getting too close."

"So why tell me now," she responded. "Why let me in on the big secret now?"

K and Jack traded a quick glance. With a bit of a nod, Jack licked his lips softly and looked at Scully.

"Your partner was in the school when it was taken," Jack explained. "The ties you two share may help our equipment get a lock on where they've transported the school."

An all-too-familiar sick feeling hit the pit of her stomach at those words. He had managed to get himself into another situation out of his league, and he might not make it back. Breathing softly to ease her emotions she looked at Jack.

"Then we'd better get started," she said softly.


End file.
